Scott O'Dell (person)

Born May 23, 1898 (or 1903, sources can't agree) in Los Angeles. Scott O'Dell grew up in southern California when it was still a frontier. His father was a railroad worker, so the family moved often, and seems like they always got to live in cool places. O'Dell spent a lot of time outside as a boy, and got to do such cool stuff as paddling out to sea on logs, prying up abalones, and hunting for fish in gloomyspooky sea caves. He had to grow up to write thrilling stories.

As an adult, O'Dell worked as a cameraman, most notably on the filming of Ben Hur. He got to use the first technicolor camera.
He enlisted in the Air Force and served in Texas during World War II. He was a book editor for an L.A. paper, then became a full-time writer in 1934, first writing both fiction and nonfiction for adults. In the late 1950s, he began to write for kids. Island of the Blue Dolphins, written as a protest against hunting, was his first book for young readers, and immediately won the 1961 Newbery Award.